How much input did you get in the design of the first Usagi Yojimbo action figure in the TMNT line?
(Sequential Tart Interview, Feb 2001 FIXME Broken link) It was a fun thing to do. The toy looks very different from my version of Usagi but it had to fit the rest of the toy line. You should have seen the one that was rejected. (The Comics Journal #192 Interview, December 1996 FIXME Broken link) He appeared in two episodes of their TV series, a couple of toys — one Usagi Yojimbo and the other Space Usagi — and maybe two or three comic book crossovers, but that’s about it. And actually, I did pick up a few readers because of the crossover. They had seen my character in one of the TV series and decided to try the comic book. So, I have no regrets whatsoever. It’s just that, if you saw the toy, it was not the Usagi that I had created. I knew going in that it would have to be part of the regular toylines, so I let it go at that. But the first prototype was rejected outright. It was even more extreme: it was like Rob Liefeld drawing Usagi, Usagi’s head on He-Man’s body. Like I said, it wa
